Scandinavian Design [Paperback]

Charlotte Fiell (Author), Peter Fiell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2003

This is a survey from c.1900 to the present day that illustrates virtually all areas of design: furniture, glass, ceramics, textiles, jewellery, lighting, industrial and product design.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Charlotte J. Fiell studied at the British Institute, Florence and at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts, London, where she received a BA (Hons) in the History of Drawing and Printmaking with Material Science. She later trained with Sotheby's Educational Studies, also in London. Peter M. Fiell trained with Sotheby's Educational Studies in London and later received an MA in Design Studies from Central St Martin's College of Art & Design, London. Together, the Fiells run a design consultancy in London specializing in the sale, acquisition, study and promotion of design artifacts. They have lectured widely, curated a number of exhibitions and written numerous articles and books on design and designers, including TASCHEN's Charles Rennie Mackintosh, William Morris, 1000 Chairs, Design of the 20th Century, and Industrial Design A-Z. They also edited the six-volume Decorative Arts series published by TASCHEN.

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 382285882X
• ISBN-13: 978-3822858820
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Democratic objects., March 8, 2003

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scandinavian Design (Paperback)

Another one of those excellent Fiell/Taschen overviews on design. This time, a huge 704 page, beautifully designed and printed pictorial collection of the essence of Scandinavian creativity. Although it covers the obvious furniture, metalware, glass, textiles and ceramics it also considers commercial products from companies like Fiskars, Hasselblad, IKEA, Lego, Saab, Volvo and nicely, even a company like Kompan, a producer of childrens playground equipment that is sold worldwide. I think this is one reason for the commercial and creative success of Scandinavian products, they believe that good, simple design should be applied to everything and be available to all, the introduction calls these products democratic objects.

The book is a joy to look at. Each designer (or company with their logo) starts on a spread with a small head shot of the person, some text and the rest of the space, sometimes over several pages, devoted to photos. Interestingly with so many photos (more than 1600) many of which came from various sources, the color values are very similar and they all blend together throughout the book. I think Taschen are to be congratulated on producing (yet again) a stunning looking book that covers the subject so well and anyone involved with craft creativity and design will be pleased to have a copy.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Huge variety of stylish furniture, January 2, 2009

By 

Parka (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Scandinavian Design (Taschen 25) (Hardcover)

Length:: 0:20 Mins

Right at the start is an introduction to Scandinavian design. Included also is a brief history into each of the countries featured in the book, namely Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It looks at their design influence and trends.

This is an essentially a catalog book which showcase the many designers and their work. They appear alphabetically in the book. Each designer comes with a brief introduction.

There are hundreds of photos in this hardcover book. While this is a product design book, the focus is specifically on furniture. As such, there are lots of tables, chairs, lamps and indoor decorative objects.

There's a great variety of style to look at, although I can't personally distinguish the design differences between countries. It's a great book, recommended more to interior designers, furniture makers and product designers.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Meh, October 14, 2005

By 

Hamilcar Barca "III" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scandinavian Design (Taschen 25) (Hardcover)

Ikea would have you believe that legions of brilliant, unknown designers toil tirelessly in arctic sweatshops across Scandinavia to bring you items you didn't even know you wanted. This book is the next best thing to an anxiety attack over swedish meatballs at the local Ikea megastore.

My criticism is that there is little rhyme or reason to the pieces chosen for inclusion. The book just haphazardly marches through: here a chaise lounge, here an end table, here a sconce grafted to a candelabra. If it were better organized with more descriptive text and designer bios including guiding ethos, it would be an excellent introduction to Scandinavian design.